Whether it’s due to age, surgery, hormone therapy, or medical treatment, trans people can and do experience menopause or menopause-like symptoms.
Here are five key things trans people should know about menopause.
1. Menopause can affect anyone with ovaries
Trans men and non-binary people with ovaries can go through menopause, either naturally with age or due to surgical procedures like oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries), cancer treatments, or chemical menopause from hormone blockers. These changes involve a drop in estrogen levels and can result in classic menopausal symptoms like hot flushes, night sweats, brain fog, and mood swings.
2. Trans women can experience “Menopause-Like” symptoms too
Trans women don’t undergo menopause in the same way as people with ovaries, but they can still experience menopausal symptoms - especially if their estrogen therapy is paused, reduced, or stopped. This sudden hormonal drop can cause hot flushes, fatigue, emotional changes, and sleep disturbances (Wierckx et al., 2014).
It is important to understand that these symptoms are real, and a good health care provider will listen to you and take them seriously.
3. Know your body and track what is changing
If you’re on testosterone and start noticing new symptoms - like mood swings, trouble sleeping, hot flushes, or even unexpected bleeding - it’s worth paying attention.
These shifts might be related to perimenopause or another hormonal change, not just your testosterone dose. Since menopause symptoms can look like other things (like stress, burnout, or testosterone side effects), it helps to track how you’re feeling over time.
Use a journal, app, or voice notes to log things like mood, sleep, body temperature, bleeding, or energy levels. That way you’ll have a record to guide conversations with your doctor.
4. Affirming menopause healthcare is important but often hard to find
Unfortunately, many providers still lack training on how menopause affects trans and non-binary people.
American doctor and trans rights advocate, E. Mimi Arquilla DO says even if you can’t find someone with oodles of training “the most important advice I can give is to find someone you feel comfortable talking with, and who will apologize when they’re wrong and do the work to learn what they don’t know.”
If your current provider isn’t supportive, consider reaching out to an organisation like Working It Out for advice information about where to go. You can also review the health care providers listed on the Sign Post. This is a website that lists inclusive Tasmanian services - signpost.org.au
5. You Deserve Support—and there are resources out there!
It’s hard when you can’t see your experience reflected in the resources, words or stories our world tells about menopause – but the good news is that there are some community-created resources out there.
- The Genderqueer Menopause Coach Podcast, hosted by Lasara Firefox Allen – find it wherever you listen to podcasts!
- The Queer Menopause website – has a blog all about being queer, trans and going through menopause, as well as lots of links to other resources - www.queermenopause.com
- Search for online support groups – usually run by a community member themselves so can provide a space to vent, to seek information and connect with peers.
The change is coming (no pun intended!)
While our world has a long way to go, we know that when we get active, talk about things and name things we see positive change.
The more we talk about menopause and who it affects, the better we can support everyone going through it. From finding the right language to accessing quality care, trans people deserve full visibility and validation throughout this life stage.
If you are a trans person who is in perimenopause or menopause and would like to write about your experience – please get in touch!
References
- Ask the Expert: What to Know About Menopause When You’re Trans or Nonbinary. Dr. E. Mimi Arquilla, DO. 2024. https://www.healthline.com/health/menopause/ask-the-expert-menopause-in-trans-men-and-nonbinary-people
- Kerryn Drysdale, I. Burton-Clark & Katherine Moline (20 Jan 2025): Reimagining menopause by expanding assumptions shaping research: a scoping review of gender and sexuality diverse people’s experiences and expectations. International Journal of Transgender Health, https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2024.2447785
- Boehmer, U., Ozonoff, A., Timm, A., et al. (2021). Health care experiences of transgender people: An intersectional perspective. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 36(6), 1701–1709. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-020-06475-9
- Wierckx, K., Mueller, S., Weyers, S., et al. (2014). Long-term evaluation of cross-sex hormone treatment in transsexual persons. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 9(10), 2641–2651. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02755.x
- Image credit: www.queermenopause.com